How Playing Chess Alters Your Brain Chemistry and Memory Retention

You’ve probably heard that chess is good for cognitive function. Study after study shows that chess helps improve memory and focus for all ages, from kids to seniors. Regular play is becoming popular as an intervention with little cost and no side effects. What’s chess actually doing inside the brain, though? If you’ve ever been curious about the actual (neuro)science, fire up your own neurons and dive in.

A Few Things About the Brain

Human brains are infinitely complicated machines. While neuroscience is rapidly advancing, much brain activity remains mysterious. Your brain is a demanding organ, using 20% of your body's oxygen and blood and around 20% of your daily calories, despite being about 2% of your body weight.

The brain runs on chemicals and electrical signals. Roughly 100 million neurons are generating between 12 and 25 watts of electricity to signal to nerves throughout your body. These electrical signals are passed from neurons along structures called dendritic branches to synapses. While we’re born with most of our brain wiring already in place, the brain grows and changes significantly until about the mid-20s.

The old adage “use it or lose it” is absolutely true when it comes to the brain. A 2012 study from Boston Children’s Hospital found that neural immune cells called microglia (a janitor cell, if you will) will sometimes prune away otherwise healthy synapses due to idleness. As our brains are shaped and maintained, the things we do most will create stronger connections.

Chess Can Be a Helluva Drug

There are three main brain chemicals triggered by playing chess: dopamine, endorphins, and epinephrine/norepinephrine.

Happy Chemicals

Dopamine is the reward chemical. Complete an action, get a little dopamine hit. Dopamine is short-acting, but it feels “fun” and elevates your mood. A little dopamine is great, and playing chess can certainly provide a stream of pleasant chemical releases. Dopamine is tricky, however. Chess players who grind hours of blitz are feeding the dopamine machine. Chasing dopamine this way reinforces the brain pathways for those neurotransmitters, “wiring” your brain to want more. Too much of the same thing can become an addiction.

Endorphins are longer-acting feel-good chemicals released in response to pain or stress. Endorphins work by blocking pain signals to help you continue functioning. They also reduce stress and anxiety, and they can boost confidence. If you’ve ever felt good after a workout, that was the endorphins doing their job. Winning tough chess matches, beating that next-level chess engine, or mastering a new strategy can release endorphins.

Stress Chemicals

Epinephrine (also called adrenaline) and norepinephrine are the “fight or flight” chemicals. These chemicals are released when you encounter stressful situations, mobilizing the energy to respond. Playing chess can release these chemicals when you face a tricky position or time pressure. The good news is that these chemicals can increase neuroplasticity, facilitating learning and keeping connections active enough to avoid the clean-up crew. The extra good news is that play can trigger these chemicals without a nasty cortisol chaser, the stress-related hormone that’s been shown to negatively impact your health. (More about this in the interesting study Play, Stress, and the Learning Brain by Wang and Aamodt, 2012)

What’s the bottom line? Chess can release chemicals in your brain that help you feel good! It can also exercise your stress mechanisms in a controlled environment, without damaging cortisol. All of that builds a more positive outlook and better resilience.

Keep the Neurons Firing

Feelings are one thing, but how does chess affect the function of the brain? The biggest impact seems to be on memory.

Types of Memory

• Sensory memory is input from your senses, and it lasts only a few seconds. Sensory memory by itself isn’t something you control, but its highly detailed input can trigger other brain processes.
• Short-term memory, or working memory, is the temporary storage system. Short-term memory may last a few seconds or minutes, and it’s essential for completing tasks. You can improve short-term memory through organization and repetition. This kind of memory is based in the prefrontal cortex, which also manages attention, decision-making, emotions, and self-control.
• Long-term memory is the most durable and extensive memory center. The two main types of long-term memory are declarative (facts and events) and non-declarative (skills and relationships)

What Does Chess Do?

Short-term, or working, memory is vital to chess and is most affected by playing it. Chess players need to process, hold, and evaluate multiple positions and tactical options all at once. Pattern recognition skills also get a workout. Regular play can maintain and even improve working memory in chess players of any age. Those janitor cells, the microglia, won’t prune connections that are actively in use. In fact, those connections are strengthened! While there’s no consensus on the exact percentage improvement a chess player can expect, some studies show as much as 20% improvement in short-term memory function.

Because chess engages the prefrontal cortex, regular play can support overall executive function by strengthening connections that control attention, emotional control, and decision-making. These skills work together to help you complete daily tasks, make plans, and cope with/solve problems. Keeping this part of your brain healthy with regular exercise preserves the cognitive function needed to stay sharp as we age.

Flow State

Another benefit of long, focused games of chess can be achieving a “flow state,” a state of deep, calm concentration and high performance. The flow state benefits not just your brain, but also your nervous, circulatory, and respiratory systems. Reaching this deep, meditative state also shuts off your inner critic for a bit, allowing you to live completely in the moment. Flow state gets easier to achieve with practice. Playing chess might help your brain get better at this.

Getting Those Good Vibrations

We have some idea of what chess does in the brain; how can you get the most benefit yourself? Play chess regularly! Playing chess daily (or close to it) exercises and activates the connections that keep your short-term memory and executive function skills in good shape. It will send a message to the brain to spend energy keeping those dendrites healthy while warding off the cleaner cells. No matter how you choose to play, playing regular games is the primary way to see good brain results.

Play slow chess. Classical chess sessions can tickle the right brain centers for bigger benefits. Slow chess gives your brain a chance to activate more complex circuits and reinforce patterns. It also avoids a quick dopamine loop in favor of a gentler release of chemicals that can bolster growth and neuroplasticity. Bonus points for playing over-the-board as well. In-person play provides social and mental benefits that a computer just can’t match.

In addition to regular games, practice game analysis and puzzles frequently. The satisfaction of finding a solution or understanding a great strategic line will not only build confidence and a sense of accomplishment (hello endorphins), but it will also keep those circuits firing.

Keep It Positive

Chess can also release brain chemicals with more negative effects due to stress, anxiety, or obsession. The chess world has sadly lost elite players to addictions, mental illness, and suicide, including the recent accidental overdose death of GM Daniel Naroditsky. While you may not face the same kind of pressure, there are still things to avoid.

• While a blitz chess session can be a fun temporary mood lift, it shouldn’t be the bulk of your play. The instant gratification of rapid-fire dopamine hits can become addictive. An increased need for dopamine can lead to depression when you can’t get your blitz in. You can even change your brain chemistry permanently by feeding it a constant dopamine stream.
• If chess feels stressful (beyond normal tournament anxiety), is all you think about, or makes you angry, it might be time to re-evaluate your relationship with the game. The happiest players I’ve spoken with (including a few elites) mention that chess is a game that should be fun. Take a break and come back with a more balanced perspective.

Your Brain on Chess

Chess is a hobby that almost anyone can pursue and enjoy. Recent interest in brain health has people searching out any and all ways to keep their faculties intact throughout their lives. The good news? Playing a game—chess, specifically—can provide great mental benefits without side effects or great expense. That’s great news for all the chess players out there!